Lotus Blooming in Ruins
by Piccylo
Summary: Every ninja in Konoha has their own story as to what happened to them when the Kyuubi attacked that October evening. Might Guy had a good deal of endurance to stubbornly march through as he did. It was here that he learned the true power of youth.


Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. I am not affiliated with Viz, Shonen Jump, Toei, Disney, or Kishimoto. This one-shot is rated for violence and language.

Yes, yes. Some of you expected more Matsubaran. (I also know you expected something uploaded a mite quicker.) Well, this had inspiration. _Anvilicious_ inspiration.

* * *

The life of any shinobi can run a long course from childhood to the age they finally part from this world. It isn't unheard of that children may fight on the battlefield along side their parents and their grandparents in times of war, possibly against each other, possibly to meet their fates on that battlefield. It's the sort of lifestyle that could wipe out any sense of one's "youth" with the waves of bad fortune that hover ever-present near the hidden villages.

That being said, the sudden attack on Konohagakure by the nine-tailed chakra beast forced a lot of ninja to grow up before they were really ready.

That cool October evening was deceptively calm. The village was well into the better half of mending its wounds that it had obtained from the Third Great Shinobi War, where a society of wartime hasn't been completely shaken off but only clings lightly to the skin of the culture, if only because the soldiers were already tired of talking about it. That included the younger ninja who had already had their taste of warfare before they ever should have been in a kinder world.

Even the most jaded of adolescents will let down their guard. Might Guy probably wouldn't have considered himself "jaded", exactly, but he did feel a bit of pride in being "experienced" in this ninja world and how it works. Maybe he was a little cocky about it, but, tonight, he was free to do as he pleased. His sensei didn't have any missions for them, and the whole team was given a break.

Guy decided to take it easy and not train today. It wasn't often that he had time off, and, honestly, did he really need it? His taijutsu was really the best of anyone his age—fourteen going on fifteen—and he knew it. A day outside of his regimen wouldn't turn his muscles to dust or anything. There were a bunch of things for a boy his age to do, and it was high time he relaxed and enjoyed himself. Movies to watch, curry to eat, games to—

The low rumble hit Guy like an oncoming train, a shock-wave that would have knocked him off of his feet if he didn't have such a sturdy posture from his training. In confusion, Guy looked around, trying to find out what had hit him so hard. Was it someone trying to ambush him with a jutsu here on the street? He didn't see anyone, and there was no reason for someone to do something like that. In fact, the street he had been walking on was abandoned save for himself. The air was still, and the chuunin went quiet to match. What had happened if it wasn't someone else, then? Did he imagine it?

As an answer, the hissing creaks of leaved trees falling among themselves, accompanied by the rending of mighty roots being torn from the earth, thundered through Konoha. Guy looked up and peered into the distance, where the sounds had come.

The horizon glowed like the sunset despite it being to the east. Fire-red tails swung amongst each other as the tendril rays of a flaring star in the distance.

He felt another quake up from the bottom of his feet, and the buildings around him creaked and moaned lightly while they shed a rain of dust and small pebbles with the quiver. Guy's heart beat hard and heavy, punching him inside his own chest, and he took a deep breath.

And then he heard the roar.

Everything turns a little fuzzy after that. He recalled going up towards the thrashing, nine-tailed chakra beast, seeing other ninja jump towards it, their best jutsu out, fully prepared to sacrifice themselves as they waited for the Yondaime Hokage to reach the scene and seal up the Kyuubi with a seal he had to prepare at the last minute. It seemed ironic that what was holding it up and forcing the ninja of Konoha to defend against the beast was the Yellow Flash, whose body flicker was so fast, it was as if he teleported.

The fox bared its teeth and gladly killed, maimed, and tore apart whatever—or whoever—it could to those that came in its range of destruction. Ninja after ninja threw themselves at it. Ninja after ninja perished in doing so. The battlefield was soaked in the fire-red glow the Kyuubi emitted, the blood under its feet pooling as black as ink, the fallen, forgotten and slumped against trees, strewn across naked roots, looked pale and almost blue under the light of the full moon that hovered above them like a clean plate. They seemed to already be ghosts inhabiting the forests that hid their village.

And then the flashes came. There was the Hokage, perched atop the great toad Gamabunta, his great white cloak flapping in the wind. It was so sudden that the entire battlefield stopped for a heartbeat and a breath. The quiet hummed with electricity.

Another growling roar ripped through that silence, and the ninja scattered. Seals were made, what looked like the god of Death Itself appeared in the sky from a dark swirl, the Kyuubi screamed its hate at the man's insolence, its curses booming through creation, and then… And then…

With a flash, the air was empty. With a flash, the Kyuubi was gone, only what it reaped to show that it was ever there. With a flash, the great man who had done it was gone as well, his empty body now slumped and sliding down the large toad's nose.

It was already over. Although every second felt like a lifetime during the fight, Guy felt dazed by how quickly it had all happened, the experience beyond even the description of surreal for him. Wasn't he just walking to get some curry earlier? How did he end up here, on a dead battlefield as bad as any he'd seen in the war? How did he get so tired suddenly, as if he'd unlocked a couple gates and jumped into that battle?

Guy stood in a daze for a long while at the sight, wide eyed with his thick brows pushed back into his bowl cut, breathing heavily and just now becoming aware of the sweat that washed down his face and back. Absentmindedly, he wiped his brow with the back of his hand, smearing blood and dirt onto his forehead that had somehow ended up on his knuckles. There were so many fallen ninja before him, soldiers that had given their lives to protect their comrades and their village. Men, women, even children that didn't really get to be children… He recognized faces.

A second later, he turned and ran. There wasn't any concentration of chakra in his legs to make him go faster, he was just running blindly, away from that carnage. He didn't run as far as he usually could; he must have opened a couple gates, because he had hardly enough energy in him to run even a mile into Konoha. When he was forced to stop and stoop over to breath again was when he came to his senses.

The night was suddenly a lot darker than it had been. It wasn't just that the Kyuubi was gone, but it had taken down all the power lines when it did so, and the full moon and starlight above had been blocked out by thick smoke from demolished buildings and fires that were already being put out before they could spread. It was so eerily pitch black that Guy felt he could see every smoldering ember and glow of chakra across the village if he climbed to a good vantage point, providing that glow or ember wasn't blocked by dust or debris.

Suddenly, he heard a child whimper, followed by a deep voice speaking in low, pleasing words.

"It'll be okay, Neji. I'm sure your daddy is fine." Guy looked over to see one of the Hyuuga twins kneeling down and consoling a little boy right between the stages of baby and toddler, standing wobbly with a troubled look on his face.

"No uncle," the child said stubbornly, "Daddy."

Guy blinked in wonder a moment. Honestly, he couldn't tell the difference between the Hyuuga twins himself, but this child—apparently the child of the one not present—was able to tell he was talking to his uncle. It gave Guy a sense of wonderment that gratefully lessened some of the panic and dread he was feeling.

The Hyuuga frowned and stood. He did a seal, closing his eyes and concentrating his chakra. A moment later he opened his eyes with his activated Byakugan. "Stay here, Neji." He ran towards the Hyuuga complex…

…which Guy had just realized had been partially destroyed, warped and severely damaged by the quakes created by the skull-rattling fight with the Kyuubi. Most of the buildings that remained standing only did by the grace of luck, supported with crooked beams destined to give out and fall before this night was over. The Hyuuga twin leapt between sturdier areas, trying to step as lightly as possible in such a situation.

The toddler started to wobble towards the wreckage himself. Guy gave out a cry and scooped him up into his arms as if being prompted by instinct. "Wait a second, kid! You can't go in there! It's dangerous!"

The child whimpered again. "Daddy, uncle…"

Guy groaned, blinking back the stinging sensation in the corners of his eyes, then swung the boy up to his shoulder. "Okay, okay, I get it. I'll help find your daddy, so just hang on to me."

The boy gripped into Guy's green unitard, and Guy followed in after the older ninja, who was shouting various names of his family.

"Hiashi!" A different voice, much more strained, called. In a second, both the Hyuuga and Guy were where the voice had originated.

"Hizashi!" The man standing beside Guy called. "Hold on! There are a few beams on top of you!"

"Yeah, I know," Hizashi answered with a grunt, "I'm holding them up. Can you hurry up and move them?"

Hiashi nodded and started on it, and Guy found himself helping, pulling away broken boards and bits of ceiling and wall, trying not to smack the toddler clinging to his shoulder with a piece of wood while doing it.

Soon, Hizashi was given enough room to move himself, and he rose from the rubble with a groan. Then, as his brother approached, he pulled up a very pregnant woman, placing her before him on sturdier ground. She looked dirty and had a few cuts and bruises, but otherwise looked fine. Hiashi looked on his brother in shock as she shakily leapt towards him and threw her arms around him before they both burst into tears.

Hizashi tried to look uninterested, but he wiped a couple of tears that pooled up on him as well. Guy himself couldn't help it; waterfalls were falling down from his eyes at the scene. Then a bundle he'd all but forgotten screamed into his ear, "DADDY!" Hizashi looked over in surprise at Guy, apparently seeing him for the first time.

His carefully stoic look fell away in a second. "Neji?"

Guy nodded, not able to speak at the moment while tears and snot ran comically flooded his face, and he pulled the child off his shoulder, handing him to his father. Guy couldn't see by this point, but he felt the load in his arms lighten as Hizashi took Neji from his hands an immediately hugged him against his chest, likely now crying as his brother was a couple meters away.

The twins calmed down a quicker than Guy did, and they thanked him for his help before they activated their Byakugan again and set about to looking for survivors through the rubble, now able to both help in directing people to where there are people still alive trapped under fallen buildings. He followed and helped clearing for a bit, finding that he was regaining his youthful stamina, but strayed further and further from the other search parties as he looked.

He seemed to be alone again. Alone except for the cries in the night, screaming for help, sobbing, people generally shouting their death calls. Mournful sounds littered the air, echoing above, below, left, right…from everywhere in the blackness. For some time Guy felt lost. In a sense he was lost; Konoha certainly didn't look like it used to anymore. But now he felt like he'd accidentally stumbled into Hell. The night felt endless, and the dark roads he walked on felt more so. When would morning come?

The only thing to tell him that he wasn't in Hell was the occasional cheer in the distance when someone had been excavated alive. Those were good moments. Perhaps they shined through the choking miasma of desperation.

"H-hey… hey you…" a scratchy voice came. For a moment, because it was so weak, Guy thought the voice was as far away as any wail in the night, but he was able to hear the words so clearly. He shot his head towards it and searched the darkness, kneeling.

"Good, someone f-found me," the voice said again, and Guy found himself staring at a middle-aged man pinned under what had used to have been a store. Slates of concrete and various merchandise, sprinkled with a glitter of shattered glass, sandwiched him belly-down. He must have been trying to escape when the building fell on him. "Well there, y-youngster. You look strong f-for your age. Think-k you c-can get me out?"

There was a lot of debris piled on the man, as the building had lurched its entire weight forward when it collapsed, and it took what seemed like hours for Guy to clear it off. During the time, the man talked. He told jokes. They weren't very good jokes, but they made Guy laugh as loudly and honestly as if they were. Soon he ran out of jokes, and started telling Guy about his life, his name, his wife, his daughter, and his grandson that was going to have his birthday soon.

"I have his p-present for him. It's a ss-special shuriken holder. I myself went through the academy in my youth. But I couldn't make the cut to become a genin. I b-bet he'll g-get through, though."

"Of course he will," Guy said, throwing off another support beam. "You'll see him graduate and everything."

"D-damn right. I'll get out of heh-here, and give him his birth-thday present, and he'll grow-w to be a strong-g ninja. And he-he'll be strong beca-cause his family is strong."

"You're probably right about that," Guy answered. There were creaks and groans under him no matter how lightly he stepped, and every wrench from tearing out another piece of debris made the whole thing shake. He uttered apologies every time, but the man's mood remained up.

He stopped telling his story, but Guy grew worried at the silence and prompted the civilian to sing with him. Guy dredged up every song he could from his memory that middle-aged man might know… every folk song, every classic hit, even children songs that he hardly remembered himself. The man sung along with an increasingly dwindling voice, soon every word taking a new breath. He skipped whole lines of song more and more.

The load was lightened, and Guy was able to pull out the man by himself. With a gentle tug, he extracted him slowly. His body, thankfully, wasn't as mangled as Guy had feared; though he definitely had broken bones, he still had his legs and feet more or less intact, and they were able to move though, though Guy knew he wouldn't be able to walk. Guy hoisted the injured man up onto his back and set forth towards the hospital.

The hospital was most certainly busy, if not destroyed itself. There would be many casualties there in need of medical attention. Regardless, Guy couldn't think of anywhere else to take him. He needed help, and the only place Guy knew would have medic-nin would be the hospital.

Guy kept the civilian man talking while he ran. "I'm not going too fast for you, am I?"

"N-no. You-you're doing just f-fine, son."

"We'll be at the hospital, soon, sir. Just keep talking, okay? What would you like to eat after you get better? I'll treat you."

"T-takoyaki sounds good. Wh-what about you, kid? You h-have a fa-favorite?"

"Umm, I like curry, but I enjoy eating pretty much anything."

The civilian chuckled. "My gr-grandson is that wa-way. Not like his mother. She's _pi-ppicky_."

"Your daughter is a picky eater?"

"I remember… her gr-growing up… it was so hard t-to get her to ea…"

"Sir?"

Guy stopped running, a knowing frown of dread creasing his mouth down. "S-s-sir? Are you okay?"

"…Please say something!"

"Please!"

"PLEASE SAY SOMETHING!"

After a long pause, Guy knelt forward and dropped to his knees, salty tears once again springing forth and falling to the ground below him. "Damnit. You only had to last a little longer…" Instead of dropping the man from his back, Guy clung tighter to the legs he carefully held up, knelt forward more to keep the man's body from slipping off now that he no longer gripped his shoulders.

"Weren't you going to give a present to your grandson!" He shook his head viciously. "Weren't you going to see him graduate from the academy? Well?! _Weren't you?!_"

Guy's voice echoed, his only response.

He cursed and finally put the civilian man's body down on the ground, then took it to the roadside where he'd be out of the way and silently arranged him like Guy was preparing him for his funeral. Hands crossed on this chest, Guy would have given him a flower if there were any nearby, or at least covered his face with a shroud. But maybe it was okay. The man looked peaceful, different from the face when he forced a smile through the pain.

Guy stood a moment to pay his respects, finding it hard to look at the man even with the peaceful look, since it was still the look of death. Guy wiped his eyes with the back of his sleeved forearm, shivering and trying to regain some sort of control. Time passed, and he eventually brought himself to be able to leave the body lying there. Guy went walking in the direction he had already been taking, even though he no longer had to bring someone there. Once again, he felt himself walking through Hell.

And as he walked, Hell was getting louder and louder. The wails of worried mothers and angry shouts of fathers cascaded down on him as he continued, and then were the muffled, distant-sounding cries of the children. His legs took him towards them even though he wasn't really directing himself anymore. He found himself getting off the roads again, climbing over rubble up to a summit of ruin and looked down to see the half-buried ninja academy, a swarm of adult ninja on top of it, trying to excavate it and get to their children.

Guy once again found himself helping to pull away pieces of concrete, because he couldn't stand to just watch such a thing. Damnit, he had to do something, didn't he? Those were _children_ in there, after all. Children younger than him.

Enough ruin was cleared away to make a bit of an opening, and he heard a man cheer. It was a very familiar voice.

"Thank you! There are only twenty-two in here that those who had to fight the Kyuubi have left behind in my care! We've managed to stay together! Everyone's alive!"

Guy felt a burst of relief in his chest. That was his old chuunin sensei's voice, and he had managed to keep the students safe.

The hole could only be widened enough to let the children through, as it looked like this part of the academy could fall again at any second; further excavation would only make it worse. Slowly, the chuunin sensei helped student after student climb up through the hole where another ninja waited to pull them out. One by one, each child was reunited with their friends and family. Eleven, twelve… The wounded ones were passed to others to be run to the hospital for care if their parents didn't jump forward to claim them.

Twenty, twenty-one… A child was handed to Guy, a small girl with a broken leg. She sobbed into Guy's unitard while he hugged her close, about to set off. He was supposed to run with her and find a medic-nin, but he felt like he had to stay and make sure everyone got out, even though they were probably all in the clear.

There was a great groan from all around them, and suddenly everyone still working on the site began to panic. Those with earth-type chakra cursed and withdrew as if they were burned, unable to hold up the crumbling structure anymore, and looked over at the others. "It's about to collapse! Everyone, get away from here!"

Guy wanted to help. He wanted to jump forward and do something, get the final child out, hold up the rubble, anything. But he couldn't, not with a wounded child occupying his arms like this. The a ninja at the hole were desperately trying to widen the small gap in order to allow both the child and the sensei to jump out together, even as the creaking and the shifting below their feet told them they wouldn't have enough time given how little chakra they had left.

He was able to see his sensei's arm when he shoved the twenty-second child through to safety just before it disappeared under crumbing stone and cement. The little girl in his arms screamed the sensei's name, making him cringe and stubbornly have to hold back even more tears from springing forth. He really wanted to scream for his old sensei, too, but instead he turned and ran, once again, towards the hospital, the little girl wailing into his chest as if the world had broken around her.

"It'll be okay," Guy choked, trying his best to sound cool and failing quite miserably at it, "After the night ends everything will be alright. You survived, didn't you?"

The little girl wub'ed and hic'ed, and grit her teeth. "S-s-sensei is d-dead. Sensei died for us!"

He swallowed hard and landed, then launched himself again. A teacher dying does sound like something that could be the end of your childhood, but surely there was something he could say. "He sacrificed himself for the rest of you because he wants you to live on."

"Why?! We didn't ask him to!"

How do you explain something like this to a child? He pulled up something he heard during the war. "It's a lesson. You have to live on and protect people like he did."

"But we're just k-kids!"

"It's… _because_ you're still young," He felt a little silly saying it like this, since he wasn't exactly an adult himself, "Youth… uhh… has lots of potential. You're still growing and have lots of energy so… _you'll_ be a great ninja, too."

She was quiet a moment. "…Really? Honest?"

He flashed her the brightest, widest nice-guy-smile he could possibly muster and felt his own spirits raise a bit. "Of course I'm being honest! You'll get healed, grow up, and be a great ninja! That's… uh… the power of youth!"

The little girl remained quiet, tears still coming, but a small smile came on her lips. Guy found himself feeling a little victorious.

The hospital grounds were a jumble of tents, blankets, beds, and stretchers. It turns out a part of the hospital did suffer some damage—as apparent by a wing having lost one of its corners almost as if the Kyuubi knelt down and bit into it—though most of it appeared well enough intact and stood fine. However, the medic-nin weren't going to chance the structure's foundation possibly being damaged enough to collapse later, so they evacuated that wing and some other areas, patients that couldn't handle exposure of any sort taken elsewhere in the buildings, the rest wheeled out into the courtyard among the many casualties of the attack.

Guy sat the little girl down on a blanket and told her he would find her a medic-nin to help her, and for the meantime to sit still and wait. She nodded in obedience, to which he smiled and pat her shoulder.

"See? When you believe in yourself, youth can be very strong. I'm sure Sensei would be proud of you, so no more crying, okay?"

She nodded again, then leaned up and pecked his cheek. "Thank you, Thick-brow-oniisan…"

A small blush rosed his cheekbones. He stood and gave her a thumbs-up, showing another wide, confident smile, before he turned and set off looking for a free medic-nin.

There weren't any; all medic-nin were busy either here or on the wrecked battlefield itself. Luckily, most of these cases weren't too severe except the ones that suffered injury from crumbled buildings. If the medic-nin wasn't hopping from one person to another, or healing a wound, they were slumped somewhere, resting for a few minutes, before they traded with another tired ninja and set about the cycle again. In fact, since they were so stretched, other ninja that had any training with first-aid were helping out as best as they could, wrapping bandages or applying healing ointments when possible. It was one of these ninja he'd managed to catch and tell about the girl, informing where he had left her and what wounds she had.

When he finished relaying this, he walked off to the side and sat down. Guy thought about returning to her to give her company, while likewise thinking about slumping somewhere himself to get a rest since he was nearly burned out as it was. Rest didn't seem that possible; there were as many wails here as anywhere else in Konoha, and the large concentration of them were only tempered by the knowledge that they at least had a chance of getting some help.

The previous Hokage, Sarutobi, had walked passed Guy's now glazed view, alerting him back into being conscious of his surroundings. The Sandaime was currently engaged in some sort of heated discussion with his daughter and son. His son, Sarutobi Asuma, seemed to have gotten fed up with the discussion and jumped off towards the ruined wing of the hospital.

The Sandaime shook his head. "There he goes, again."

"I'll go after him, Father."

"No, you should stay here to help bind wounds." His eye seemed to catch the one of the on-looking teenage boy, and he turned towards him, a brow quirked. "A-ha! Guy, your stamina is usually pretty good. How is your chakra at the moment?"

If it were nearly anybody else, Guy would have admitted that he was about wiped out; after fighting, followed by clearing rubble three times, interspersed with carrying wounded, it was more than reasonable for him to throw himself back into the grass and lose consciousness for a while. But when the Third Hokage looks at you with confidence like that, you pull up that last bit of reserve you've got and show that you can keep on going. "My chakra is fine, Hoka—I mean…"

"It's okay, Guy." The old man gave a solemn nod. "It seems I might be getting that title back, after all, so you might as well get used to saying it again. If you're chakra is still good, then please, go follow my son. He's going into the ruined wing of the hospital because there's supposed to be survivors there."

"Understood, Hokage-sama."

At this point, things were starting to blank in and out for Guy again, because as soon as he said that, he found himself already within the ruined wing with his tired legs burning from exertion and chakra use. There only a couple people in here working to rescue… it appeared that people had _given up_ on this area. Guy found Asuma helping a brown-haired girl about their age that took Guy a few seconds to recognize. She was a pretty girl he'd seen a couple times in the academy and was starting to develop a crush except that she graduated a year or so early to train medical jutsu.

It struck Guy as a little strange. If she was a medic-nin, why wasn't she outside helping to heal the wounded? She didn't even seem interested in healing the cut that was bleeding down her tattooed cheek, and her hands were gray-white with drywall and cement dust from all the digging. Her hands were starting to get bloody from her efforts. Guy might have asked her what she was trying to do when she suddenly stood and turned to the two of them.

"Please! I'm sure Kushina-san is under here!" She put laid her palms flat on a large slab before her and braced herself, sending chakra through her arms and hands. "Help me pull this back!" Without much other possibility, the two wrapped their arms around her and helped her pull backwards as she kept firm hold onto the slab with chakra alone (Guy marveled at the medic-nin's chakra control). There wasn't any give at first, but it wrenched backwards and tilted upward, going to a summit, and was let to fall backwards as the three zipped out of its path.

The redheaded Uzumai Kushina was indeed under the slab, but she was dead, kneeling over in a strange position on her hands and forearms. All four of her limbs were caught up in debris, one arm mangled in with what once had been a crib and some candleholders. Guy was about to offer condolences when he heard the baby cry.

"The baby!" the medic-nin shouted, then knelt beside the corpse, trying her best to peer under the late Kushina. "He's underneath! Kushina-san must have been protecting him!" She tried to tug the body loose, but it was no use. "She's really stuck in the rubble, and we can't spare the time to clear any more of it if we want to get him out alive."

There was a moment of silence before Asuma pulled out his trench knives. "The two of you might want to look away."

Neither of them did, but it was a grisly sight, even though Asuma tried his best to make sure that the two cuts were clean and quick. Immediately as he pushed the cadaver back, the medic-nin dipped her hands down and pulled up a small, crying baby with a thin swath of blond hair on its head. She examined him while Asuma looked for more survivors, smiling that the baby appeared to be uninjured. The relief kept until she had a good look at the red marks on his stomach that had almost been hidden by his mother's blood. "Oh… oh no… Minato-sensei, how could you do something like this…"

Asuma's shout roused them out of it. "Hey! I think I heard someone behind here!"

The medic-nin glanced over, then gently handed the baby to Guy, guiding his hands to support the baby's head with her own before running to Asuma's side. Guy felt a little bewildered, knowing that, if these were normal circumstances, he'd be terribly happy to have such a girl touch his hands like that. He looked down at the baby.

That seal on his stomach… what was it? He didn't recognize it. Why would such a thing be on a baby?

He carefully moved a hand up to touch it with his own, and as soon as his fingertip made contact, he felt a shock of red chakra pierce his veins. He almost jerked away. That chakra felt too much like the chakra of the Kyuubi…

…It couldn't be that the Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi in this baby, could it?

A cold wave hit him from the top of his head. He was holding the Kyuubi in his arms. The monster that killed ninja after ninja, who was responsible for the ruined Hyuuga household, the dead civilian he'd found, his crushed chuunin sensei, and even this woman who Asuma had to mutilate the corpse of in order to save this child. If the Kyuubi was _this baby_, then if the baby died…

…No one would blame him if he tossed this fox-in-lamb's-clothing on the floor and watched its skull smash to pieces like a bowl of cereal. Not a soul in Konoha would call it a sin.

That terrifying moment passed with another shock as the baby boy stopped crying and yawned a little yawn, going fast to sleep. Guy stared down in wonderment and suddenly felt rather weak. The past thought of scattering him to the ground had leapt so far and away from his mind that it was past even unthinkable. This was a _baby_ in his arms, and he felt like he should protect it, if anything.

There was another sound of a wall being wrenched away, and then there was cheering. Guy looked up at a flood of ANBU climbing out of a freshly made hole, laughing and tumbling over into the ground haphazardly as if they'd overcome a final hurdle, soon embracing Asuma and each other and tiredly celebrating life.

"Kakashi!" The medic-nin's voice called out. Guy saw her reach into the hole and an armored hand wrap around her outstretched arm. With a pull back, the Copy-Nin Hatake Kakashi appeared, and without hesitation had a sobbing, laughing girl in his arms, gripping him hard as if he'd disappear.

He made a light chuckle, in a cool air that Guy instantly more than envied. "I'm glad you're safe, too, Rin."

"I'll take the brat off your hands, Guy. I need to bring him back to my father, anyway."

He looked over to Asuma as if he'd just appeared out of thin air. "Oh, right."

Those were all the people that were unaccounted for in this wing, which, as it turned out, was partially evacuated beforehand as further precaution of the Kyuubi's sealing. There was only one fatality among them. What had happened was that Kushina had been separated from her ANBU guards in the collapse, and the ANBU themselves nearly thought they had lost members if Kakashi hadn't insisted on looking for each other and grouping together, which probably saved a good deal of them from getting caught and crushed as the building resettled.

Kushina, of course, gave her life to ensure that her son wouldn't be crushed.

Guy found himself stumbling out of the hospital grounds, a burned out as badly as anyone could be burned out and certainly not fit to be walking around. Still, though, he walked around in a zombie-like state, dreading that this night of trials would never end for him, and he soon was standing at the edge of the battlefield itself.

Bodies still littered the ground. No surprise there. Smoke and dust still hung over them like a strange, morning fog.

…_Morning fog?_

There was a glint through the thick boughs of trees and the sky above him gradually scattered the light and brightened. The October cold that had purveyed the night had become a morning chill and stuck to Guy's bones, prompting a violent shiver and his arms automatically wrapped around themselves. He watched as the light of dawn slowly worked itself over the dead combat zone.

Something stirred in the front-lines. Guy held his breath and watched.

A ninja slowly sat up with a groan.

Then another sat up.

Among the dead, a few of the ninja, who had merely collapsed among their dead comrades but had not perished, were brought back to the world of the living with the sunrise. A few stood, looking about themselves in a daze, and up to the sky. The smoke was drifting away its gray to a shining blue, and light blossomed down to the trees and the people below.

Guy wept once more, happy tears cascading down and catharticly letting all the anguish and frustration and weariness from the nightfall and soak into the ground below him. This poetically beautiful moment made him feel reborn, like a lotus that shows its second, fullest bloom at daybreak.

This was a feeling most precious to him. Years later, he hoped his students might one day understand such a feeling that they could cherish, through their own stories. Their own moments of blossoming awakening to the rising sun.

_This life, love, youth, strength._


End file.
